BTN, CBSSports.com Create `Big Ten Digital Network'

Sept. 19, 2011

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CHICAGO – BTN and CBSSports.com College Network have announced a new, landmark partnership to create the Big Ten Digital Network, which will bring the official athletics websites for 11 Big Ten Conference universities — including hawkeyesports.com, the official world wide web site of the Iowa Hawkeyes — the Big Ten Conference and BTN under one umbrella.

To visit the Big Ten Digital Network, click HERE.

The newly redesigned and launched BTN.com serves as the hub for the new Big Ten Digital Network. The live video section, available at Video.BTN.com, is powered by the CBSSports.com College Network. During the first year of the arrangement, the Big Ten Digital Network will encompass the official athletics websites for BTN, the Big Ten Conference and the league’s 12 institutions.

Over the course of the three-month football season in 2010, from September to November, the websites that encompass the BTDN reached more than 5 million monthly unique visitors and delivered more than 35 million monthly page views, according to Nielsen, creating a powerful digital advertising platform.

“The Big Ten Digital Network represents another important step in our growth,” BTN President Mark Silverman said. “By aggregating and growing these already sizable audiences through our existing on-air promotional vehicles, the Big Ten Digital Network will be an attractive proposition for advertisers and a logical partnership between them, the universities, CBSSports.com College Network and BTN.”

“This partnership with the Big Ten Network is yet another crucial step in our pursuit to work with the biggest brands across the collegiate athletics landscape,” said Rob Schupler, Senior Vice President, University Sales and Marketing, CBSSports.com College Network. “This creative and strategic alliance with the Big Ten Network will serve as the model for future interactive partnerships with other major college conferences.”

The Big Ten Digital Network will enable greater content sharing, particularly video, across all websites. More than 10,000 pieces of video content is currently available to subscribers to the Big Ten Digital Network, a total that includes more than 1,500 pieces of content produced by the UI Athletics Department for inclusion in BTDN and Hawkeye All-Access, the multi-media portal of hawkeyesports.com. The inventory will also grow each week as evidenced by the addition of 25 pieces of audio and video content by the UI during the last week. To visit Hawkeye All-Access there, click HERE.

The offerings include live and exclusive coverage of each weekly media conference of Kirk Ferentz, Fran McCaffery, and Lisa Bluder, and live and exclusive coverage of each head coach’s post-event media conference from Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Subscribers to BTDN and Hawkeye All-Access also have access to exclusive video and live radio broadcasts of all Iowa football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and wrestling events, and the weekly “Hawk Talk” call-in shows featuring Ferentz, McCaffery and Bluder.

BTN will gain additional advertising inventory across all sites and will also provide more than 500 exclusive non-televised events to the official athletics websites’ multimedia subscription services, thereby eliminating the need for fans to subscribe to two different services. The partnership will also promote the individual school sites and online stores during Big Ten Network broadcasts. Advertising sales for all video content will be a joint effort between CBSSports.com College Network, the Big Ten Network, and each specific Big Ten institution.

The redesigned BTN.com gives fans a place to find the most current Big Ten news, information, interviews, video and audio. The site includes more fully developed show pages and enhanced navigation and has a greater emphasis on social media functionality, allowing fans to easily share posts and pages on BTN.com on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, to comment directly on stories and to engage with network talent via Twitter.

About BTN: A joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Networks, BTN is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With more than 800 events, all in HD, the 24/7 network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. Events include football, men’s and women’s basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Championship events; studio shows; coaches’ shows; and classic games. The network televises and streams more Olympic sporting events and women’s sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation’s finest universities. The groundbreaking Student U initiative provides real-world experience for students interested in careers in sports television. The network is available to more than 80 million homes across the United States and Canada, and currently has agreements with more than 300 affiliates, including AT&T U-Verse, Atlantic Broadband, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Rogers Cable (Canada), Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct (Canada), Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS.

About CBSSports.com College Network: CBSSports.com College Network is the leader in the production, management and monetization of official athletic websites, e-commerce solutions, streaming products and mobile services for colleges and universities across the United States. CBS College Sports currently produces a network of approximately 160 official athletic sites for schools including the University of Iowa.